Ursuline takes out Crestview

AUSTINTOWN Hardly anyone believed Crestview's football team would stand much of a chance against Div. V state powerhouse Youngstown Ursuline, but for a while in Friday's 48-14 loss the Rebels lived the dream.

For about a half the Rebels found a way to keep up with the brute power and speed of the Irish (8-3) before reality and physics set in.

And boy did it ever.

Already entering the game with several injured players, Crestview's casualties piled up throughout the game until it seemed that just about everybody who played any sort of significant time had something wrong with them.

Senior lineman Aaron Bussard was one of those players.

"I just got killed down there the one time," Bussard said. "I don't even know what I did. It just hurts all over."

Rebel star quarterback Carter Hill was cleared earlier in the week to play after suffering a knee injury in the East Palestine game the week before, but he was clearly missing some spring in his step and his condition eroded as the game went on.

"He played his heart out tonight with a hurt knee and two hurt ankles," Bussard said.

Hill didn't let his handicap completely affect his game as he completed 17 of 40 passes for 203 yards. He also threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Thompson in the dying moments of the game.

The game ended up in roughly the same fashion as the Inter-Tri County League's other playoff forays against Ursuline East Palestine lost 56-7 in 2002 and South Range lost 31-7 in 2007 but unlike those teams the Rebels were in the game in the first half.

Following Allen Jones' 51-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 in favor of the Irish, Crestview (10-2) came back and tied it with 9:14 left in the second quarter on a Jesse Dew 17-yard run.

"I was real impressed with Crestview's offensive line," Ursuline coach Dan Reardon said. "They do a great job of protecting Carter Hill. Those guys are what make it all possible. They're big kids, they're athletic and they move their feet well."

The offensive line wasn't the only thing keeping the Rebels in the game. The defensive front played a huge role in forcing the Irish to punt three times in the first quarter.

"They were moving their defensive line around a bit and bringing some different pressures," Reardon said. "They did a good job."

Ursuline turned it on late in the second quarter as quarterback Paul Kempe scored on a 49-yard scamper and Akise Teague on a spectacular ping-pong 60-yard punt return within a 39 second time window to make it 21-7 going into the half.

The Rebels sustained a long drive to start the third quarter, but Hill was picked off on the goal line by Aaron Edwards. That's when things started to snowball as Ursuline's speed just wore down the ITCL upper tier champs.

"They were really fast. We never dealt with that speed in the regular season," Bussard said. "Our line did well in the first half. We kept up with them. We did everything we could to keep up with their jukes and moves, but toward the end of the game it just started to hit you."

One of the more soul-crushing blows of the game came when the Rebels' Adam Britton fumbled the ball into the arms of Ursuline's Jesse Curry on the Irish 1. Curry went 99 yards to make it 41-7 with 10:52 to go in the fourth quarter.

"We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times," Cusick said. "You can't do that against a team like Ursuline."

It didn't help that so many injuries to so many key players started to pile up in a hurry for the Rebels.

Among the hurt were principle running back Andrew Mayer who went down with a leg injury in the second quarter. Wide out and backup quarterback Adam Coppock left with a leg injury in the fourth quarter. Senior lineman Nick Marnejon did not play due to an injury. Senior linebacker Gary Cervone, who had battled shoulder problems all year, barely made it to the finish line.

"I tried to ignore it as much as I could," Cervone said. "I just tried to do what I could for my team. I didn't want to show any pain because I'm a leader on this team."

Rebel coach Paul Cusick was not about to use that as a crutch though.

"We did piece a lot of guys together tonight and those guys sucked it up," Cusick said. "This time of the year everybody is banged up.You just have to try to overcome and we were not able to do that. They just got us. They played a great game."

Crestview's defense had been giving up an average of 108 yards rushing per game. Even though the Rebels had 20 first downs to Ursuline's six, the Irish totaled 257 yards on the ground.

Jones, who came into the game needing 291 yards to break the school's career rushing mark, had 137 yards rushing. Of the Irish six touchdowns, five came on plays of 49 yards or more.

For the Rebels, it's back to the drawing board on trying to figure out how to advance past the second round a feat the school has never accomplished.

"We have to figure out how to get past the second round," Cusick said. "For a couple years there we were in the first round and lost some games, but now we need to see what it takes to get through the second round."

Notes

-Crestview sold $6,000 worth of presale tickets. According to Crestview athletic director Andris Baltputnis most of the presale came from Crestview fans.

"Last week we had people from all the ITCL schools buying tickets since we played East Palestine," Baltputnis said.

-Last week Garfield Heights Trinity did not run an offensive play on the Ursuline side of the field until the third quarter. Crestview had no trouble getting to the Irish side of the field early and often.

-Ursuline will meet Cuyahoga Heights in the regional final next Friday at a site to be determined.